© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court on Thursday said the fact that the total number of voters in Bihar outweighed its adult population by 107% in the past showed that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls carried out by the Election Commission was “justified” and that it “was definitely a problem which required correction”.
“So SIR in any case was justified if this was the case,” said Justice Surya Kant, presiding over a two-judge bench hearing petitions challenging the SIR exercise in Bihar.
Activist Yogedra Yadav had cited the figures to support his contention that the total number of voters had come down by 47 lakh after the SIR exercise.
He told the bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, that according to the government data, Bihar’s adult population for September 2025 was 8.22 crore. “In other words, the total electoral roll of Bihar should have been 8.22 crore. When SIR began, the electoral roll was 7.89 crore,” he said.
As per the EC, the final voters’ list for Bihar has 7.42 crore voters. Yadav said, “All over the world, voters’ lists are judged on three parameters – completeness, equity and accuracy… I would judge the completeness of SIR by asking have we moved from 7.89 to 8.22 crore? Unfortunately, instead of moving in the north, it has moved in south. It has brought us 47 lakh below that.”
Referring to the figures, Justice Bagchi pointed out that the “difference between electors and adult population (in Bihar) was touching 107%”. “So there was swelling of the electoral population or duplication whatever, in comparison to the adult population. Particularly in respect of the 2014 Lok Sabha election and 2015 Assembly election…So this was definitely a problem which required correction.” “From 2014, it rises and it goes on till 2022 and… is depressing now. You see the depressing… coming from 2022 bringing it down to 99%, 97% and now according to you which is a chunk reduction…,” Justice Bagchi said.
Yadav admitted that Bihar had a problem in the initial years. “As you can see, for the initial 2-3 years, Bihar had a genuine problem. Because it had more people on the electoral roll than the adult population.” But the problem was cured in 2023 and the current SIR “is a medicine administered after the patient was cured”, he argued, adding that the exercise has “led to the largest ever shrinkage (of voters) in the history of this country”. He said, “Anything above 100% indicates a problem in the system.”
Justice Bagchi said, “But 105% is a crisis, not a problem.” Yadav said, “At that point, Bihar had 38 lakh more voters than the adult population. And… the problem had been cured after that. Now it (the shortage) is 81 lakh.”
Justice Bagchi pointed out that it includes the 38 lakh excess from the past. Yadav said the objection was not to the power of the EC to carry out the SIR exercise, but “to the nature of revision that was suggested”.
“What SIR has done is it has weaponised a very normal and benign process. Three weapons have been included in it. First is systemic exclusion, which is to say if you don’t file your enumeration form by such and such date, you automatically cease to be on draft rolls and all your legal rights can extinguish on that very day which has never happened in this country. (Then) there is structural exclusion, which is to say unless you provide these documents, we cannot consider your case. What they have done is in one stroke they have widened the wall as well as raise the height of the wall. (Third) There is a possibility of targeted exclusion because citizenship is being enquired into for the first time,” he said.
He urged the court to direct the EC to disclose how many persons were found to be foreigners and were deleted from the rolls after the exercise.
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission, said there are five more days remaining for those excluded from the final list to file appeals and urged the court to issue a direction to all concerned to help such persons file appeals.
Accordingly, the bench in an interim order asked the Bihar State Legal Service Authority to issue directions to its district-level bodies to assist voters excluded from the final rolls in filing appeals with the EC. “…We deem it appropriate as an interim measure to request the Executive Chairman, Bihar State Legal Services Authority, to send communication, preferably today itself, to all secretaries of District Legal Services Authorities to provide services of paralegal volunteers, free legal aid counsels to assist excluded persons to file statutory appeals. Secretaries to immediately re-notify mobile numbers and full description of paralegal volunteers in each village, who in turn will contact the Booth Level Officers. They will collect information with respect to persons who have been excluded from the final list. Paralegal volunteers would reach out to persons, informing them of their right to appeal. They will offer services to draft appeals and provide free legal aid counsel,” the bench said. The court will now hear the matter on October 16.
Dwivedi also referred to the claim made by the main petitioner, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), that a Bihar resident’s name, which was there in the draft list, got deleted from the final list.
Refuting this, the senior counsel said the person’s name was not there in the draft list as he did not submit the enumeration form. He added that the affidavit handed over on his behalf by ADR raised false claims and this would amount to perjury.
The bench conveyed its displeasure to ADR’s counsel Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who said the affidavit was handed over to him by a “responsible person” and that the court could ask the state legal services authority to verify its genuineness.
